Michigan Wolverines’ 2023 national championship glow didn’t even last long enough when they didn’t make the playoffs. Now, U-Mich could be spending the offseason in the NCAA’s crosshairs. Defending themselves with a 137-page rebuttal against a notice of allegations accusing the program of 11 violations in response to a scouting and sign-stealing scheme led by ex-Wolverine staffer Connor Stalions. The fallout has been swift and relentless. Jim Harbaugh bolted for the NFL, as many expected, leaving his longtime assistant, Sherrone Moore, to not only take the reins of a title-winning program but also absorb the full force of the NCAA’s investigation.

Harbaugh’s tenure in Ann Arbor was always a balancing act between brilliance and chaos. He delivered Mich back to national prominence, won the ultimate prize, and then left town as if he had seen the writing on the wall. His constant flirtation with the NFL didn’t just create uncertainty—it had tangible consequences for recruiting.

As Fox’s Bruce Feldman pointed out to Dan Rubenstein on The Solid Verbal podcast. “It was a rough year for Michigan, and I think there’s some unique pieces of this right the way Jim Harbaugh operated,” he said. Harbaugh’s looming departure meant Michigan wasn’t aggressively pursuing top prospects, including five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood, a local product who seemed tailor-made for the Wolverines.

“It was like, ‘Hey, let the SEC fight over him,’” Feldman said. That laissez-faire approach might have made sense in Harbaugh’s mind—why go all-in on a kid when you’re not even sure you’ll be around to coach him?—but for a program looking to sustain elite success, it was a major miscalculation. And of course, with “Michigan having real money people,” they made the $10 million freshman deal happen.

Now, Moore is left to pick up the pieces again, but his task extends beyond just recruiting. The NCAA probe into the sign-stealing operation led by a former low-level staffer has placed him in an uncomfortable spotlight. Deleting text messages tied to the scandal only added fuel to the fire, and while Michigan’s official stance is that the entire ordeal had “minimal relevance to competition,” the optics are rough.

As Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported after obtaining a portion of the 137-page doc., Michigan isn’t interested in a negotiated resolution with the NCAA. They’re going on the offensive, defending Harbaugh, Sherrone Moore, and even Stalions—the architect of what is now being called “one of the most elaborate sign-stealing systems in college football history.”

The school’s argument? That there is no concrete proof from NCAA investigators that the operation directly impacted games in a way that constituted a competitive advantage. It’s a bold stance, one that relies on discrediting not just the NCAA’s findings but the entire notion that advanced scouting and decoding signals played a role in Michigan’s championship run. But that argument ignores the real issue—perception. Whether Michigan actually won games because of stolen signals or not, the scandal has permanently altered the narrative.

At the heart of this mess is an uncomfortable reality: Michigan’s system under Harbaugh, while successful, wasn’t built for long-term stability. His revolving door of assistant coaches, his annual NFL dalliances, and his old-school mentality worked when everything clicked. Once the foundation started to crack, it became clear that there were major structural flaws. The scouting scandal might have been the tipping point, but in many ways, Michigan’s issues run deeper.

Sherrone Moore has the talent to keep Michigan in the mix, but the distractions aren’t going away anytime soon. The NCAA isn’t known for moving quickly, meaning the investigation will likely loom over the program for months, if not years.

Sherrone Moore on why he deleted the text messages

Michigan Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore is clearing the air on why he deleted multiple text messages from former staffer Connor Stalions. With the NCAA hammering Michigan with 11 allegations—six of which directly involve Stalions—the program has been on defense, insisting there’s no hard evidence tying other staffers to the alleged sign-stealing operation.

Moore, however, found himself in the spotlight after it was revealed that he deleted 52 messages from Stalions on the very day the NCAA launched its investigation, October 19, 2023. That raised plenty of eyebrows, but Moore insists it wasn’t about covering anything up—it was about frustration. He did not want one person to take credit for the team’s championship run. “So, (I) deleted all the information—all Connor, on my personal phone,” he said in Michigan’s response. “And it wasn’t to hide anything, it was just that—I was just extremely angry of, you know, the type of person that would do that to this program and these kids.”

Stalions allegedly bought tickets to games of future Michigan opponents and sent people to record the signals of their teams. The then-OC Morre was suspended for one game during the 2023 season after former head coach Jim Harbaugh allegedly contacted two recruits during a COVID-19 recruiting dead period in 2021. Looks like the shadow of scandal is hanging heavy over the Wolverines.